Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Bracket Banter is our daily open thread to discuss all things bracket. Readers can post comments and questions during the night's games, and we will answer those questions as the night goes on.

Tuesday's GamesA lot of SEC questions are going to be answered this week, and we'll get some of those answers tonight as Kentucky hosts Tennessee and Georgia hosts Xavier. Kentucky is looking to regroup after off an 0-2 week that dropped them down to the 5 line in our latest bracket, while Tennessee (with Bruce Pearl back on the bench) is looking to bounce back from a bad home loss to Alabama over the weekend. Both teams need this game if they want to keep within striking distance of Florida in the SEC East standings, and Kentucky needs it to avoid falling under .500 in conference. Kentucky plays at Vanderbilt this weekend and Tennessee plays at Florida, so the loser of this game could be in for a tumble seed-wise next week.

The most intruiging game of the night, though, might be Xavier at Georgia. The Bulldogs hung on to their bid this week by beating Arkansas and Auburn, but their remaining schedule is no picnic. They still have four tough road games left as well as a home game against Vanderbilt next week. Getting a win here over a quality OOC opponent would be huge for a resume that has just two Top 50 wins on it. The game is equally big for Xavier, who could also use a quality OOC win to pair with their 8-1 record in the A-10. The Musketeers play at Duquesne this weekend, so it would be nice to get a win here to ensure at worst a 1-1 week.

Elsewhere, Boston College plays at Clemson in what is a key game for the Eagles. BC has a nice OOC win over A&M on its resume, but they haven't done much in ACC play besides win at Maryland (which isn't all that great of a win right now). The Eagles got blown out by North Carolina and eeked by Virginia Tech at home last week, and they'll have to play a lot better than that down the stretch if they want to finish with a winning record in conference.

Two mid-majors who slipped into this week's bracket are also in action tonight. Wichita State, this week's lone MVC representative, hosts Southern Illinois, and George Mason, our new automatic bid out of the Colonial, plays at UNC-Wilmington.

Also keep an eye on: Indiana at Purdue, Utah at San Diego State, Cincinnati at DePaul, Penn at Princeton

21 comments:

Does a game like Cincinnati vs. DePaul even count? When people say Auburn is the worst major-conference basketball team, I think, what about DePaul? Any school that is regularly swept by one of my alma maters (the USF Bulls) cannot claim to be remotely a basketball power. If it weren't for schools like Centernary, they would regularly be at or close to the top of the list of worst schools in basketball.

Iowa is clearly much better than the other teams you mentioned. I would say that Wake Forest is the worst major-conference team, but there are still many teams worse than them, for example, practically every team from the SWAC

Arizona State seems to be the best to me. Iowa State is a close second. Iowa is third and even though Wake Forest has better wins that DePaul, their worst losses are much worse. I'd say that DePaul is fourth, Wake Forest fifth and Auburn is last. Auburn does have some somewhat good wins, but they have too many bad loses.

UGA loss tonight tells one a lot about the SEC -- that they are really not that good overall, and that, for example, Alabama's head-scratching divergence between in-conference and OOC records is probably not just an anomaly.

Oh, and to carry the previous discussion forward, I think Wake is the worst on a consistent basis. Weak OOC and still managed a losing record in that. Except for the statistical blip home win over VA their closest ACC game was 19 point loss at home to MD. Every other ACC game was lost by more than 20 points.

Neutral site 5-game series, I would take DePaul 4-1 over either of Wake or Auburn. At least DePaul shows up and are still actually in the game after the first 10 minutes.

As painful as it is to type, doesn't one need to begin considering Clemson now? Likely 9-7 finish in ACC, OOC record that reads like Seton Hall and the 10 dwarves. Still, you know ACC is not going to be just a 3-4 bid league. They travel too well and too many first round games in ACC territory.

I think DavidATL should shove his percieved biases... Sites like these serve to keep the NCAA selection committee honest, or at least prove that they are.

Virginia Tech will be the 4th after Duke, UNC, and Florida state, and they have wins over OK state, Penn state, and Miss st out of conference, along with an OT loss v purdue. At 5-4 in conference, and 38 in the sagarin ratings, though just 69 RPI, they deserve to be on the right side of the bubble for now.

Maryland has 8 losses, ALL to teams currently in B101's bracket, 4 of which came to teams in the top 11 of Sagarin ratings, though they do not have any quality wins. They have 4 of their next 5 v teams in B101's bracket, 2 or 3 wins in that span should prove enough to ensure their spot in the tourney.

BC is 10-6 vs Big six schools this year, including a win over TAMU, and has played a top 20 schedule. If they finish strong, they deserve a bid.

Clemson needs 10-6 and a first round win in the ACC tourney to get in, as they did nothing in the OOC.

Miami probably needs the win over duke, and then 8-8 might do it combined with the WVU win, winning one of the road games at FSU or BC would probably seal it.

Now, all of that won't happen, but enough will that the ACC will get 5 or 6.

Clemson is very alive after last night's win over BC. If the Tigers can beat Carolina in Littlejohn on Saturday, they have a good chance to finish 10-6 in conference. They'll need to get to 10 wins (9 won't be enough) and win a game in the ACC tournament to offset their poor OOC resume.

I think Wake Forest is the worst team of the bunch. Auburn, DePaul and LSU would round out my final 4 if they did a worst major-conference team tournament.

Do you think Clemson needs to go 10-6 *and* get a win in the ACC tourney even if they get a bye with the 3rd or 4th seed? I think the game against UNC is the season for Clemson. If they win, they'll probably get to 10-6 and be in. If they lose, making the tournament is going to be very tough.

BC is done if they don't beat Maryland this weekend. Their nice win against Texas A&M is more than offset by their bad OOC losses to Yale and Rhode Island. In the end, I think the ACC gets 4 or 5 teams.

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